This invention relates generally to golf club heads and, more particularly, to golf clubs heads having specially configured grooves formed in the striking face.
Golfers generally know how far a golf ball will be in flight after being struck by a golf club and, consequently, will select a particular club according to how far it is desired for the ball to travel. The launch conditions of the ball generated by the impact (i.e., ball speed, launch angle, and backspin) determine how far the ball will travel. However, a secondary consideration in controlling the ball""s travel distance involves what happens after the ball strikes the ground. Once the ball strikes the ground, its movement is primarily affected by the amount of backspin imparted on the ball by the golf club. A ball having a greater amount of backspin after being struck will have less forward roll after it lands on the ground. Less forward roll is advantageous to a golfer because it provides precision landing and placement of the golf ball on a golf green. Lack of sufficient backspin will create too much forward roll, which can cause a golf ball to unmanageably roll either off of the green or in a direction away from a golf hole. Imparting spin on the golf ball is a way to control the golf shot and to provide greater accuracy. This is particularly true if the golf club imparts consistent spin in multiple strikes of the golf ball.
To gain backspin, grooves, or score lines, are placed in and extended across the face of a golf club. The grooves help to grip the ball when it is hit by the club. Because the golf club has a lofted angle, the ball is driven forward and upward, generating backspin. The greater the loft, the greater the backspin, and the more the grooves grip the ball, the even greater the amount of backspin. Since a high amount of backspin is most desirable when using high lofted clubs, the focus of groove geometry has centered primarily on irons, and, in particular, primarily on 7 irons through wedges. Wedges are generally designed with a variety of loft angles, ranging from about 48 degrees to 64 degrees, to vary the control of distance and trajectory.
A variety of groove configurations have been devised to achieve additional backspin. These configurations include squared grooves, V-shaped grooves, U-shaped grooves, and variations of these shapes, including grooves with parabolic sides as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,929 to Long. These shapes are governed by the U.S. Golf Association (xe2x80x9cUSGAxe2x80x9d) rules of golf as to their depth, width, spacing, and positioning. Specifically, a groove may not be deeper than 0.508 mm or wider than 0.9 mm. Adjacent grooves may not be closer than three times the width of the groove (the xe2x80x9c3-times-width rulexe2x80x9d) and must be at least 1.905 mm apart. Finally, the width and cross-section of the grooves must be consistent across the face of the club head and along the length of the grooves.
The multiple shapes of the grooves illustrate how challenging it is to fulfill the requirements of effective grooves while staying true to the USGA rules. In general, more grip is achieved by increasing the surface contact between a ball and the groove and reducing the amount of debris (e.g., water, sand, and organic matter) between the ball and the club face. Therefore, a larger number of grooves provide better gripping, but the width must be reduced to accommodate the 3-times-width rule. Conversely, wider grooves perform better because more ball surface may enter the groove, but the 3-times-width rule allows ball contact with very few grooves. The draft angle or draft of a groove is commonly defined as the angle between an axis perpendicular to the face of the club head and a sidewall of the groove. Deeper grooves, e.g., U- or box-shaped grooves, allow for more release of debris trapped between the club face and the ball, but deep grooves have shallow drafts and allow little contact between the groove and the ball. Highly drafted grooves, e.g., V-shaped grooves, allow for more surface contact between the ball and the groove surface, but an evacuation area for debris is limited. The problem of V-shaped grooves is compounded because the USGA rules define groove width in terms of the intersection between the edges of the groove and a line on each side of the groove that is angled 30-degrees to the club face. The groove width is the distance between the two intersection points on each side of the groove. This severely limits the depth of a V-shaped groove. Also, V-shaped grooves typically have sharp top edges that may scuff the ball.
It should, therefore, be appreciated there is a need for a golf club head that imparts increased backspin to the ball in a range of playing situations and conditions. The present invention fulfills this need and others.
The present invention provides a golf club head having grooves that impart increased backspin to a golf ball in a range of playing situations and conditions. The grooves include a first side, a second side, a pair of top junctures where the first and second sides join a planar face of the club head, a bottom and a pair of bottom junctures where the first and second sides join the bottom. The spacing between the first and second sides continually increases from the bottom to the top junctures. Each of the sides has a lower section positioned nearer the bottom and an upper section positioned nearer the face, and each of the lower and upper sections is substantially planar. Since the spacing of the sides increases from the bottom to the top junctures, the lower sections form a first draft and the upper sections form a second draft, resulting in a dual-draft groove configuration. The top junctures are convexly rounded, and the bottom junctures are concavely rounded.
In a detailed aspect of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the lower sections are offset relative to one another at an angle between about 5 degrees and about 40 degrees, and the upper sections are offset relative to one another at an angle between about 80 degrees and about 100 degrees.
In another detailed aspect of a preferred embodiment, each of the top junctures is defined by a circular arc having a first radius and is tangent to the planar face and tangent to the adjacent upper section.
In yet another detailed aspect of a preferred embodiment, each of the bottom junctures is defined by a circular arc having a second radius and is tangent to the bottom and tangent to the adjacent lower section.
In yet another detailed aspect of a preferred embodiment, each of the middle junctures is defined by a circular arc having a third radius and is tangent to the adjacent upper and lower sections.
For purposes of summarizing the invention and the advantages achieved over the prior art, certain advantages of the invention have been described herein above. Of course, it is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, for example, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein.
All of these embodiments are intended to be within the scope of the herein disclosed invention. These and other embodiments of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments having reference to the attached figures, the invention not being limited to any particular preferred embodiment(s) disclosed.